Box Score (html)
Box Score (pdf)
Photo Gallery

MOBILE, Ala. – University of South Alabama junior Augustine Rubit (Houston, Texas) tied his career high with 19 rebounds and added 23 points to help the Jaguars to a 74-69 victory over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Sunday afternoon at the Mitchell Center.

The Jaguars stopped a two-game skid and improved to 5-5 overall. The Islanders lost their sixth straight to fall to 1-6.

USA used runs of 14-0 and 11-0 in the first half to lead by as many as 14 points early and held a 13-point advantage with less than four minutes left but had to survive a late TAMUCC comeback.

“I thought we really played well at the start of the game,” USA head coach Ronnie Arrow said. “I thought we played well most of the game. We came back (after the UAB game) and spent three very hard days on defense. We got after each other. We’ve been giving up far too many points. They still got 69 points. I think until the last four minutes we were playing really good defense. We gave up some 3s uncontested and didn’t guard the hole like we should have, but I thought overall our defense was a lot better.”

Rubit recorded his fifth double-double of the season and his 19 boards are the most by any Sun Belt player this season.

“I thought Aug was a monster tonight,” Arrow commented. “A lot of his points came off the offensive boards.”

Texas A&M-Corpus Christi scored the first two points of the contest but did not score again until the 12:42 mark, allowing South Alabama to reel off 14 unanswered points, with 12 coming from Rubit and junior Xavier Roberson (Houston, Texas). The Islanders answered back with a 13-2 run of their own to pull within three, but the Jaguars responded with another big rally, putting up 11 consecutive points to go back up 14 and take a 37-26 lead into halftime.

“It’s always easy when you’re ahead,” Arrow noted. “We talked about starting the past two games behind because we don’t play defense and we bury ourselves with 3-point shooting. Tonight we got the ball inside. I think Aug scored the first four points inside and Coach (Jeff) Price had a stat where every time we went inside in the first half and went back out, we scored. It was like five or six times. Hopefully we learned from that tonight.”

Rubit, Roberson and sophomore Mychal Ammons (Vicksburg, Miss.) combined to score the Jags’ first 23 points and 27 of the team’s 37 at halftime. Roberson shot 6 of 8 from the field for 13 points.

The second half was a different story for South Alabama, who started 1-for-13 from the floor to allow Texas A&M-Corpus Christi to trim the deficit to 47-41 after two free throws from Johnathan Jordan with 11:31 to play.

USA hit just four of their first 17 attempts to open the second half but got hot again in the final seven minutes, making their next four shots and finished the game by converting eight of their final nine shots of the contest.

The Islanders wouldn’t go away though, and nearly matched the Jags shot-for-shot, shooting 9 of 12 from the field in a 6 ½ minute span late in the game to get as close as five with less than 10 seconds left. But USA made enough free throws in the end to hold off TAMUCC.

Roberson earned his 16 points on 7-for-11 shooting overall and 2-for-3 shooting from 3-point land. Junior Antoine Allen (Baltimore, Md.) came off the bench and dished out a season-high six assists.

USA freshman Viktor Juricek (Prievidza, Slovakia) made the most of his 17 minutes, recording new career highs in points (10), rebounds (five) and 3-pointers (two). He missed just one shot on the night, making two field goals and all four free throw attempts.

“Everyone was surprised with his 3-point shooting,” Arrow said. “I knew he could do that; it didn’t surprise me at all. Where he has been lacking and what I was happy to see is that he had five rebounds. He has been going three games and getting five rebounds. He needs a good summer of working on his quickness. The European game is much slower; the American game is much faster. One thing about him though, that dude is going to come in everyday, practice hard and look at it on tape. He studies the game, we just have to get him a lot stronger and work on his mobility.”

TAMUCC had a pair of scorers record 17 points: Jordan and Brandon Pye. Jordan tallied eight at the free throw line and Pye converted five times from behind the 3-point arc in seven attempts. Joy Williamson and Will Nelson added 12 points each.

South Alabama resumes Sun Belt Conference play Saturday against West Division leader Arkansas at Little Rock at 2:05 p.m.

NOTES: Senior Javier Carter (Dallas, Texas) did not play due to a concussion suffered in practice Saturday… South Alabama has won the only two meetings between the two schools by a combined seven points… Rubit started 4-for-6 from the floor but missed his next nine shots… He currently has 997 career points, 14th most in school history… He missed four free throws tonight, the most in a game this season – he entered the game second in the Sun Belt in free throw percentage… The Jags’ 14-0 run is the biggest unanswered spurt by the team this season… Ammons has grabbed exactly seven rebounds in a game six times this year… Allen’s six assists are the most by a USA player this season… South Alabama won the battle of the boards 45-29 and the rebounding margin of plus-16 is a season-best… Sunday marked the first game USA was outshot by its opponent but still won (1-5).

For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with www.usajaguars.com, and follow the Jaguars at www.twitter.com/USAJaguarSports. Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).

—USA—